JUNE 2016, No 3
3rd Division Visit: Acoustics and Ionising Radiation.
After a welcome from Richard Burguete, we enjoyed a talk from our
invited speaker Karen Kirkby from the Institute of Cancer Sciences University of Manchester, entitled “Proton Therapy – the story so far”.
Following a buffet lunch in Postgraduate Institute Common Room,
Bajram Zeqiri gave an overview of the science and facilities in the
division. We then had talks from AIR Lead Scientists: Paddy Regan
(Radioactivity), Mark Hodnett (Acoustics) and Graeme Taylor (Neutrons) then Students
on their specific areas of study: Srinath Rajagopal (Acoustics), Elsje van Es (Radioactivity)
and Alex Dimitriadis (Dosimetry).
Next came the lab tours – which are always rated highly in feedback. A total of eight labs
were visited showing an enormous range of topics from hydrophone calibration to
clinical dosimetry and some spectacular kit.
The day was rounded off with a fun practical session which was led by the
training department and was to do with accuracy and precision… involving darts.
This is the third division visit we have run, and whilst we have now created a
fixed format, there is still much work involved in getting it all together and in
speaker preparation so we are very grateful to the Ambassadors in AIR this
time round for showing off the breadth and depth of their Division’s work.
PGI Networking Superstar
Science Bite Videos
PGR Shaun Geaney sweet-talked
prominent UK vlogger Tom Scott into
the NPL site where he shot a piece on the
redefinition of the kilogram. We were
impressed at the speed of the process
and at the impact too: in just 2 days the
video received 250k views with a
comment rate 3x ‘industry standard’.
Taking inspiration from the
Institute of Physics’ 3 Minute
Wonder competition, NPL’s
Communications
team
is
planning to create a series of
short videos (2-3 mins long) for
their YouTube channel, which
highlight and explain aspects
of our science in a simple and
engaging way.
There are a few examples of the
tone and style we’re going for
in the videos here.
https://youtu.be/JKCBeDeVxkg
https://youtu.be/CNQf9vZqv7k
https://youtu.be/Otx0vnfKnhE
As members of the NPL postgraduate community, we would like to
encourage you to take part and showcase your own science, so
please contact the PGI and we can look into obtaining appropriate
support to bring your work to an extremely broad audience.
The official newsletter of the Postgraduate Institute
W: npl.co.uk/pgi T: 020 8943 6018 E: pgi@npl.co.uk
Editor: Shaun Geaney
Page 1
PGR’s work awarded prestigious
NPL award.
The Rayleigh Award is NPL's most prestigious
internal award, given yearly to the author(s) of
the most outstanding published paper. The award
is highly competitive, and papers are judged on
their creativity and novelty, the extent and
quality of the scientific investigation, potential
impact, and clarity and accessibility.
In 2016, the winning team included one of our
PGRs Andrew Fenwick, who along with John
Keightley, Andy Pearce, Sean Collins, Kelley
Ferreira and Lena Johansson had success with
their paper, Standardisation of 223Ra by liquid
scintillation counting techniques and comparison
with secondary measurements, published in
Applied Radiation and Isotopes.
Director’s message
In this June issue of GradPost I hope you will get a
fresh view of the interesting activities that have
been going on in the Postgraduate Institute over
the past few months. These events have been a
great success and highly valued by those that
attended, the feedback has been very positive. In
particular I would like to say how much the great
efforts of the Acoustics and Ionising Radiation
(AIR) Division Ambassadors put in to the division
visit, it certainly paid off. These visits are a really
excellent way to get a much wider view of the
science done at NPL and we learned how much of
it affects our lives directly. I would like to warmly
thank all the speakers, which included NPL
fellows, scientists and students from the AIR
Division and our guest speaker Professor Karen
Kirkby from Manchester University. The day
ended with the water rockets event at which the
PGR team, with little previous experience,
managed to build a water rocket in a short time
that made two successful launches and travelled a
fair distance. I hope that next year we can mount
a serious challenge as I can’t think of any group
that would have a better combination of
intelligence and enthusiasm than a bunch of NPL
PGRs.
The official newsletter of the Postgraduate Institute
W: npl.co.uk/pgi T: 020 8943 6018 E: pgi@npl.co.uk
Things have changed a little since then following
the EU referendum and the vote for Brexit. When I
began writing this, about two weeks ago, I was
preparing two separate pieces based on which
way the country would vote. Since the events last
month I find myself feeling that I need to have
only written one article. The reason for this is that
although there will be some changes on the
horizon, what you are doing as postgraduate
students and what we aim to do in the
Postgraduate Institute will stay the same. The
science and engineering research that you are
carrying out today is as important as it was on
Wednesday 22nd June and it will be so in the
future. In fact I believe that in a changing and
uncertain world the application of science
research for societal benefit is crucial to
sustaining our way of life and maintaining the
stability that allows us to thrive.
From my first day at the Postgraduate Institute I
have been impressed by the incredible research
that you are all doing and enthused by the energy
and commitment you show in your daily work.
What we are doing in the Postgraduate Institute
will help you access relevant training, gain an
industrial perspective and hopefully be inspired
by other scientists who have started their careers
in the same way that you are doing now. As these
times of uncertainty can generate many questions
I will be holding some open-door sessions to allow
you to raise any questions you have and discuss
them in an informal way. Furthermore, I want to
reassure you that although there will be changes
coming they will be carefully managed. Although
there is some uncertainty around I am looking
forward to the challenges facing us because the
opportunities that the Postgraduate Institute will
offer are of benefit to you as researchers and will
help you secure the best possible careers in future.
I look forward to seeing you if you are visiting
Teddington over the summer or during one of my
trips to our partner universities. As the next issue
will be out in October I want to take this
opportunity to hope you have an enjoyable
summer and get the opportunity to have a welldeserved break.
Editor: Shaun Geaney
Page 2
Open house
On 17 May 2016 (as close as practicable to World
Metrology Day which was on 20th May) NPL
opened its doors to around 3,500 visitors who
explored about 50+ labs and other activities.
Several of our number were showing their science
in their laboratories between 2-8pm whilst the
PGI Common Room played host to a ‘judge the
PGR poster competition’ for which the winner was
Transfer of Chemical Vapour Deposition Grown
Carbon Nanotubes for Interconnect Applications,
by V. Gopee, O. Thomas, V. Stolojan, J. Allam, S. R.
P. Silva.
Support for PGRs based at
Teddington
Did you know about - Unum LifeWorks?
It is free, confidential with a 24/7 365 day
service.
There are flyers on-site with log in details and
a UK hotline telephone number.
The service provides practical information and
advice on a wide range of issues from parenting
and work matters, through to debt management
and healthy eating.
It also offers personal support.
Speak to a caring professional counsellor, on
matters affecting your emotional well-being
including relationships, bereavement, stress and
anxiety.
Online tools include – a childcare search locator,
self-assessments on health and money issues,
Podcasts, and discussion boards on a variety of
subjects. www.unumlifeworks.co.uk
PGI at NPL Water Rocket
Challenge.
The event was an opportunity for our group to
talk to an extremely broad audience about some
of the science we do, and more specifically about
the PGI.
The official newsletter of the Postgraduate Institute
W: npl.co.uk/pgi T: 020 8943 6018 E: pgi@npl.co.uk
To add to the exciting Divisional Visit day, after
the AIR-based activities, we decanted down to the
NPL Sports Club to participate in the enormous
Water Rocket event. A Water Rockets team made
up of Lauren, Elsje, Robert, Greg, Leonardo, Chloe,
Zilvinasz, among others joined Richard in making
a rocket in the workshop which was then
launched successfully, TWICE, as part of the
general event festivity. There was a real buzz to
the event and we hope to enter a serious team
into the competition next year (21 June 2017).
Editor: Shaun Geaney
Page 3
SEPnet/GRADnet events
NPL LGBT+ Network
As a result of the informal collaboration with the
Graduate arm of the South East Physics Network
(SEPnet) students that are members of the PGI
have been invited to attend the GRADnet
Celebrating Entrepreneurship Networking
Evening on Wednesday 13 July at the University of
Surrey. As part of a celebration of the GRADnet
Entrepreneurship Challenge this networking
evening will bring together the business
community and physics PhD students who have
been taking part in the Challenge. Research
students will be asked to present their business
ideas to a panel of industry judges who will then
be keen to share their experiences and learn more
about yours. As well as having stimulating
conversations and making positive connections
we hope that you will hear inspiring stories of
entrepreneurship in action from the carefully
selected speakers. If you are interested in
attending this, then please contact the SEPnet
team through the following email
info@sepnet.ac.uk
17 May 2016 was the International Day Against
Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. To
celebrate this day, NPL was proud to launch a
new community network at NPL to support their
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff.
A previous event that was held under the same
banner was called Connecting Industry and
Researchers in Physics. Held on the 9 June this
was GRADnet’s 5th networking evening to
facilitate greater collaboration and links between
industry and physics postgraduate research
students (PGRs) and researchers. About 60
industry representatives, physics PhD students
and academics attended this event. The evening
was arranged so that PGRs could meet small and
medium sized enterprises and employers from
physics-related industries (participate in a speed
networking session) to find out about career
opportunities, make contacts and explore
research and business ideas in order to build links
with industry to explore how academic and PhD
research can create impact, and expose student
researchers to physics-related industries
interested in recruiting physics graduates.
The PGI wants to support this activity and provide
some additional help (and funds) to put on extra
talks that are specifically of interest to
postgraduate researchers.
The official newsletter of the Postgraduate Institute
W: npl.co.uk/pgi T: 020 8943 6018 E: pgi@npl.co.uk
All PGRs on the NPL site are welcome to join the
group and can find more information, at the NPL
LGBT+ Network intranet area, and/or pop along
to their regular Thursday meetings at 12:15 for
45 minutes in F1-LS2.
Have your Say in Celebrating
Science Lecture Series
NPL runs a (roughly monthly) on-site lecture
series called Celebrating Science. In the past
we have had all manner of people presenting a
diverse range of topics – many are available for
view here.
We are therefore looking for 2-3 volunteers who
can provide new ideas and some help to the
coordinator to make these events a success.
If you would like to get involved please email the
PGI.
Editor: Shaun Geaney
Page 4
Training
Registration is now open for the next swathe of e-Learning courses on ‘Introduction to Metrology’ and
‘Introduction to Measurement Uncertainty’.
July 2016
October 2016
Introduction to Metrology
Introduction to Measurement Uncertainty
18th-24th July
25th-31st July
Register by 12pm Monday 11th Jul
Register by 12pm Monday 18th Jul
17th-23rd October
24th-30th October
Register by 12pm Monday 10th Oct
Register by 12pm Monday 17th Oct
Course registration emails to be sent to pgi@npl.co.uk by 12pm on the registration deadline dates given in
the table above. You will receive a confirmation email from a member of the NPL Training team no later
than the Friday before the course runs.
National Instruments training and hands-on seminars
Seminars are listed below, and the training programme is given in the figure.
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Introduction to NI LabVIEW and Data Acquisition
CompactRIO – Programming with LabVIEW Real-Time
CompactRIO – Programming with LabVIEW FPGA
Automated High-Performance Measurements on PXI-Based Modular Instruments with LabVIEW
Build an Automated Test System with PXI and TestStand
Introduction to Machine Vision with CompactRIO and FPGA
Introduction to NI DIAdem
Introduction to RF Systems on PXI
Introduction to Software Defined Radio
Software Engineering with LabVIEW
The official newsletter of the Postgraduate Institute
W: npl.co.uk/pgi T: 020 8943 6018 E: pgi@npl.co.uk
Editor: Shaun Geaney
Page 5
Changes to Student Ambassadors
Since our last newsletter there have been a couple of changes with our Student Ambassadors. Hearty thanks
to Ilana Wisby whose contributions to the PGI have been numerous and impactful. We wish her all the very
best as she approaches the completion of her PhD. She is being succeeded by fellow TQEM worker Shaun
Geaney. As for new Ambassadors Robert Shearman has joined from the Acoustics and Ionising Radiation
Division and Hasan Al-Kassem from the Analytical Science Division. Many thanks to these new volunteers.
We are still on the lookout for a second Ambassador to represent Analytical Science Division. Please could
any volunteers contact Amir Kayani for more details.
Useful Contacts
PGI Ambassadors
Flaviu Cipcigan
(Materials Division)
flaviu.cipcigan@npl.co.uk
Hannah Corcoran
(Engineering Measurement Division)
hannah.corcoran@npl.co.uk
John Molloy
(TQEM Division)
john.molloy@npl.co.uk
Ana Yong
(Materials Division)
ana.yong@npl.co.uk
Lauren Petrie
(Acoustic & Ionising Radiation Division)
lauren.petrie@npl.co.uk
Shaun Geaney
(TQEM Division)
shaun.geaney@npl.co.uk
Niall Origo
(Environment Division)
niall.origo@npl.co.uk
Piers Turner
(Acoustic & Ionising Radiation Division)
piers.turner@npl.co.uk
Hasan Al-Kassem
(Analytical Science Division)
hasan.alkassem.13@ucl.ac.uk
Eleonora Nicolosi
(Environment Division)
eleonora.nicolosi@npl.co.uk
Robert Shearman
(Acoustic & Ionising Radiation Division)
robert.shearman@npl.co.uk
PGI Team
Richard Burguete
PGI Director
richard.burguete@npl.co.uk
Amir Kayani
PGI Operations
Manager
amir.kayani@npl.co.uk
The official newsletter of the Postgraduate Institute
W: npl.co.uk/pgi T: 020 8943 6018 E: pgi@npl.co.uk
Andrew Hanson
PGI Cohort Experience
Manager
andrew.hanson@npl.co.uk
Gill Coggins
PGI Administrator
gill.coggins@npl.co.uk
Editor: Shaun Geaney
Page 6